206 firearms surrendered in Tucson for gift cards

Tucson residents lined up outside a police substation Tuesday morning to surrender guns in exchange for gift cards under a gun turn-in program organized by a City Council member, as gun rights advocates mounted a counter effort to buy guns no longer wanted.

People giving up their firearms in the turn-in program organized by Councilman Steve Kozachik received $50 gift cards from the Safeway grocery store chain.

When the event ended at noon, a total of 206 firearms had been voluntarily turned in for destruction.

No one was turned away during the course of the event, according to Tucson Police Chief Roberto A. Villaseñor.

The program occurred on a day that Tucson remembered the victims of the deadly shooting that severely injured then- U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. It was the second anniversary of the Tucson shootings.